An NTL employee could lose his job concerning allegations that he was behind a New Year's eve hack of ntlhell.co.uk.

The employee, who hasn't been named, has been suspended from work following a three-week internal investigation by NTL into allegations that ntlhell.co.uk was hacked by someone from within the cableco.

The employee faces a hearing later this week.

The alleged incident, which took place on New Year's Eve, resulted in subscribers of ntlhell.co.uk receiving an email containing the phrase "ntlhell.co.uk is shitntlhell.co.uk" repeated almost 300 times.

Those behind the Web site claim whoever was behind the incident was "very clumsy" and left a blatant 'trail' which led back to NTL.

However, Bryan Stevens, the owner of ntlhell.co.uk, told The Register that he doesn't want anyone to lose their job over the incident insisting that it was "just a bit of horseplay that went too far".

Instead, he wants an apology from NTL and the person concerned.

A spokeswoman for NTL said she was unable to comment on the matter until the investigation had been completed in full. ®

NTL has sacked one of its employees for "gross misconduct" after he hacked into the independent customer forum ntlhell.co.uk.

The hack - which included sending the members of ntlhell.co.uk a derogatory email - took place on New Year's Eve.

The incident was traced back to someone working at NTL using one of the company's computers. Last week, an un-named employee was suspended from the cableco following a three-week internal investigation.

Yesterday, that individual was dismissed. They have five days to appeal the company's decision.

Those behind ntlhell.co.uk had written to NTL asking that no one should lose their job over the incident.

But in a statement NTL said: "Following the hacking of an ntlhell.co.uk user forum which took place on 31st Dec 2002, NTL has conducted a thorough investigation and identified the employee concerned.

"The employee has been dismissed on grounds of gross misconduct. The employee has five working days in which to consider whether or not to appeal. It is not appropriate that NTL discloses the name or identity of the employee." ®